Micetich joins Maxum Specialty
Gary Micetich joined Maxum Specialty Insurance Group's managementteam and will be responsible for the launch of its new E&Sproperty division for the non-admitted markets. With the launch ofthe E&S property division, Maxum will now consist of fiveunderwriting divisions. Micetich comes to Maxum from EssexInsurance, where he served as senior vice president of the specialproperty division. NSU HIRES Palmer
PalmerHart has joined National Specialty Underwriters Inc. as a salesexecutive in the Chicago office. National Specialty UnderwritersInc. is an insurance program administrator specializing in medicalprofessional liability for the healthcare industry. Miali joinsNautilus Nautilus Insurance Group, a member company of W.R. BerkleyCorp., appointed Thomas Miali assistant vice president, propertyunderwriting. Miali was formerly vice president of a reinsurancecompany. He has more than 30 years of experience in the industry,with expertise in excess and surplus lines, individual riskunderwriting, programs, training, and development marketing.PIA names Grushon agent of the year
TheNational Assn. of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) has namedMike Grushon, CIC, CRM, of Thomas and Grushon Insurance AgencyInc., Bellbrook, Ohio, 2009 Professional Agent of the Year. Hiscommitment to community affairs and education made him a more thaneligible candidate for the award. PIA National president KenAuerbach presented the award to Grushon at an Arlington, Va.,luncheon during the association's spring board of directors meetingand federal legislative summit. Merchants Insurance grouppromotes Bravetti to AVP, commercial lines
MerchantsInsurance Group, Buffalo, N.Y., promoted Rosemary Bravetti toassistant vice president of commercial lines underwriting andproduct development. Bravetti has been with Merchants since 2005when she joined as director of commercial lines underwriting. Shewill retain the responsibilities of that role in her new position.Sanford Oster to join Valiant InsuranceGroup
Valiant Insurance Group of New York has namedSanford Oster as vice president, casualty claims manager. Osterpreviously served as manager of excess casualty claims at XLInsurance. Prior to XL, Oster was a complex claims director for AIGTechnical Services. He will report to Jeff Bossart, senior vicepresident and chief claims officer, and will be located in thegroup's New York office. QBE chooses Rumpler as CEO,Americas division
QBE Insurance Group Limited,Sydney, named John Rumpler CEO of the Americas division. Rumplersucceeds Vince McLenaghan, who has been serving as acting presidentand chief executive officer of the division since June 2008.Rumpler, who was previously group general manager, credit &surety for QBE, has been with the company since 1997. He willassume his new role, based out of the division's New Yorkheadquarters, in June. Galioto named president, ceo anddirector at York Insurance Services Group
YorkInsurance Services Group Inc., Parsippany, N.J., appointed AnthonyGalioto to the positions of president, CEO and director, reportingto York's board of directors. Galioto previously served aspresident of AIG Insurance Services Inc. from 1996 to 2000. From2000 to 2006, he served as president of AIG Domestic Accident andHealth and later as president of Worldwide Accident and Health. In2006, he was named senior executive, East AIG Cos. Harternamed PIAPAC Person of the Year
Steven J. Harter,CIC, was named the 2008 Person of the Year by the ProfessionalInsurance Agents Political Action Committee (PIAPAC) at the April 2PIAPAC fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C. Harter is anindependent insurance agent who owns his own agency, Select RiskInsurance, Ava, Mo. He also is chair of the PIA Services GroupInsurance Fund and is a former president of the National Assn. ofProfessional Insurance Agents. Tracy named president ofTravelers Inland Marine
The Travelers Cos. Inc.named Joseph Tracy president of Travelers Inland Marine. TravelersInland Marine provides business insurance products and solutionsfor operations involved in fixed and mobile property of all types.Tracy has been with Travelers since 2006. He was previously thechief underwriting officer for unit. Prior to joining Travelers,Tracy served as the head of OneBeacon Insurance's Inland Marineoperations. Farady named to ElC board
JohnFarady has been elected to the Electric Insurance Co. (EIC)'s boardof directors and also has been appointed to the audit committee ofthe Chelsea, Mass.-based insurer. As an independent director,Farady will oversee the company's financial reporting andenterprise risk management. Farady retired from John HancockFinancial Services in 2004 after a 27-year career, includingpositions as senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions.SmithEly joins Apollo Agencies
ApolloAgencies Inc., a wholly owned property and casualty subsidiary ofKinecta Federal Credit Union based in Tustin, Calif., recentlyappointed Jill K. SmithEly to the position of president. Beforejoining Apollo Agencies, SmithEly was vice president of HUBInternational of California Insurance Services. Her career includesdeveloping and implementing insurance agency sales and operationssolutions that produced profitable growth for her respectivebusinesses. Valiant names Frame AVP, complianceofficer
Valiant Insurance Group, Inc. has named JohnFrame assistant vice president, compliance officer. Prior tojoining Valiant, Frame served as a compliance officer for ACE USAProfessional Risk, N.Y. Previous experience includes assistant vicepresident with Marsh Global Broking and underwriting associate withMunich-American Risk Partners in New York and American Re in NewJersey. Frame will report to Ursula Kerrigan, senior vicepresident/general counsel, and will work in Valiant's New Yorkoffice. Higgenbotham, Key & Piskuran combineforces
Commercial property and casualty insurancebroker Key & Piskuran has merged with Higginbotham &Assocs., a national insurance and financial services broker withstatewide operations in Texas. The move will help Key &Piskuran expand its business by providing access to employeebenefits capabilities. Willis HRH hires Pera as partner,Atlantic region
Douglas W. Pera has been appointednational partner of Willis HRH's Atlantic region. Willis HRH is theNorth American retail business of Willis Group Holdings. Pera willbe responsible for the company's retail offices in Maryland,Tennessee and Virginia. Pera will be based in the Nashville office.Pera brings to the position 28 years of industry experience. Mostrecently he was resident managing director-Carolinas for AON RiskServices, where he oversaw all offices in North and South Carolina.From 1998 to 2006 he worked for Marsh USA in Memphis where heserved in a variety of capacities including being responsible forthe middle market in the south region. N.Y. agency hikesaverted
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY)succeeded in helping to eliminate the agency penalty and fee hikes,along with the fingerprinting requirement, that were proposed byNew York Gov. David Paterson in his 2009-2010 budget, whichincluded several dramatic increases in the penalties for violationsof New York insurance law. Under the proposed budget, the fine foracting without a license and aiding an unauthorized insurer wouldhave jumped from $500 to $10,000. An individual applying for aninsurance producer or other license would have been required to paya $75 fee for background checks. While the budget was poised forpassing with these increases included, hundreds of IIABNY membersmet with lawmakers and voiced their collective opinion, that theseincreases were unwarranted and would, in fact be devastating tothem. Farmers acquires AIG's personal autogroup
Farmers Insurance Group of Cos. will expandits reach both inside the industry as well as geographically withthe acquisition of AIG's personal auto group, which includes 21stCentury Insurance Co., for $1.9 billion. Farmers, a subsidiary ofZurich Financial Services Group, will sell the underlying insuranceentities to the Farmers Exchanges, which Farmers Group Inc. managesbut does not own. 21st Century includes the former AIG direct andagency auto business it operates in 49 states and has more than 2.4million customers. 21st Century is the third- largest direct writerof insurance in the United States. Zurich “ZIPS” intoaccident and health market
Zurich North AmericaCommercial, Schaumburg, Ill., announced that Zurich IntegratedProducts (ZIP) unit will now be accepting submissions nationwidefor accident & health business. ZIP, launched in 2008, isdesigned to fill commercial insurance needs for small tomedium-sized businesses. ZIP's A&H products are available forany industry with revenues up to $25 million, or roughly 300employees or less. Insurance Specialty Group to build onforeclosures
Insurance Specialty Group LLC, SiouxFalls, S.D., in conjunction with multiple homebuilding specialistfirms and contractors, have founded Home Builder Specialty Group(HSG). HSG works to provide lending institutions and real estateinvestors a turn-key solution for unfinished single and multifamilyresidential construction projects taken over because of developerand builder foreclosures. HSG provides lending institutions andreal estate investors with access to a “one-stop shop” to completeprojects and make them ready for sale. HSG services include projectvaluation, construction, inspection, and repair of partiallycompleted homes. ICMG: In-person networking “mostproductive” lead source
In-person networking was themost productive source of business-to-business leads, according toa recent survey by the Inter-Company Marketing Group (ICMG). Thesurvey sample of 40 businesspeople showed the following priorityorder of business-to-business leads: o In-person networking atindustry meetings: 37 percent o Trade advertising in print or onthe Web: 15 percent o Mailing lists purchased/rented from aprovider: 12 percent o Web sites providing lead generation: 10percent o Business networking sites (such as LinkedIn): 2 percent oAll other (referrals, personal relationships, e-mail, directcontact, referral partnerships with a third party company, andalumni associations): 24 percent. “Even with the soaring popularityof social networking, it's good old fashioned'meeting-and-greeting' that remains the most productive activityfor insurance product managers and business developmentexecutives,” said ICMG President Anne Marie Faria.Redesigned Web site at NAPSLO
The NationalAssn. of Professional Surplus Lines Offices Ltd. (NAPSLO) hasredesigned its Web site (www.napslo.org), which features richercontent, more timely news coverage and additional resources toposition the site as the main source of information pertaining tothe excess and surplus lines industry. The site includes some newfeatures such as NAPSLO education and schools, legislation andregulation, and upcoming events as well as the NAPSLO blog.Philadelphia to offer green policies
Philadelphia Insurance Cos. now offers Premises EnvironmentalCoverage (PEC), which provides on and offsite third-party bodilyinjury and property damage and cleanup of pre-existing and newconditions. PEC has limits of up to $3 million with additionalcapacity coming soon. The environmental division currently targetsmunicipalities, golf and country clubs, schools, zoos and medicalfacilities, and will be rolling out new policies to expand itsbusiness in the near future. PIANJ plans women's businessforum
The Professional Insurance Agents of NewJersey Inc. will host its annual Women's Business Forum Wednesday,May 6 at the Forsgate Country Club in Jamesburg, N.J. The event isdesigned to promote career and agency development for the femaleagency and company executives; nurture relationships, and establisha comfortable environment where participants can build uponexisting relationships and leadership skills. Speakers includeElizabeth E. Hance, president and chief executive officer of MagyarBank, New Brunswick, N.J., who will share her experience andinsights on the world of finance within the context of communitybanking.